[TR] Forming plexi

[Kinderlehrer]

Randall, many years ago I bought a heat strip very similar to the one here:
http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=169&

I mounted it on a pice of 3/4" plywood in which I had routed a 3/4" wide 
groove so the heating element would not actually touch the plastic. I 
covered the board with aspestos paper before mounting the heating element. 
(I wonder if you can still get that stuff?)  The instructions that came with 
the elemnet said to make the base by mounting 2- 1/4" boards wrapped in 
aspestos paper 3/4" apart on a 3/4" board with another piece of aspestos 
paper on it - I wonder why I remember that?  It's actually pretty simple and 
once you've made the tool, you will discover all kinds of things that you 
have to have made out of plexiglass :-)

Bob



> pethier at comcast.net wrote :
>> I would not go near a piece of plexi with a heat gun unless I was
>> trying to form it.
>
> Since you've raised the topic, what is the easiest way for a total novice 
> to
> go about putting some mild bends in some 3/16" Plexiglas?  I've got some 
> old
> AMCO wind deflectors for my project TR3, but the plexi is broken on one
> side.  The original had a gentle S-curve to fit around the car body 
> better,
> which I would like to duplicate for a replacement piece.
>
> Is a heat gun the way to go?  Are we talking hair dryer or heat shrink
> tubing gun?